Government | People | Design | Technology

Month: July 2009

Over the past several years, Iâ€™ve spent much of my time bringing leaders from government and the IT industry together to exchange best practices and collaborate with each other.

Being involved in these sessions gave me a unique opportunity to hear from many of the most interesting executives in DC. Some of the conversations surprised me, others intrigued me, but all of them taught me something.

Though the list of interesting speakers that I have had the pleasure to learn from could go on for days, here is my list of the Top 25 Most Fascinating Communicators in Government IT.

The following was sent to @govfresh via multiple DMs under the pseudonym â€œ@realtweetthroatâ€ with the request his identify be withheld to protect him, his family and his real high-ranking position at the real White House.

Join us for a conversation with Mary Davie, Assistant Commissioner of GSAâ€™s Office of Assisted Acquisition Services, and Noel Dickover of DoDTechipedia, about bringing government acquisition services into the digital age.

Such was the case earlier this week at the Open Government and Innovations Conference. Held at the Convention Center in Washington, DC, the two-day conference brought together 700 â€œgov 2.0â€ types from the federal government and the consulting community that supports it. As such, not only did most attendees pack a Twitter-appified PDA; many also toted laptops or netbooks.

Healthcare workers and advocates are bridging social media, technology tools and healthcare to work towards meaningful healthcare reform and the development of an Electronic Health Record and National Health Information Exchange. This list is by no means comprehensive so please add more. I would like to eventually categorize into groups, but you can get an idea by search under hashtags #healthcare, #hcsm, #hcmktg and #hcreform (please share other hashtags being used).

The weekly Sunday Gov 2.0 Radio talk show hosted by Adriel Hampton, Steve Lunceford and Steve Ressler now has its own page on GovFresh. Tune in every Sunday at 5 p.m. eastern for the latest in collaborative, transparent government and talks with who’s who in Gov 2.0.

As Space Operations Outreach Program Manager for NASA Headquarters, Beth Beck has one of the best jobs in the universe. Beth shares her affinity for iPhones and chaos via social media.

What was your path to Gov 2.0?

WIRED Magazine is my bell-weather for all things new. How does that apply to Gov 2.0? I find that we, the generic government, usually lag two years behind industry in our application of new products or processes. WIRED showcases all things trendy, giving me a jumpstart on ideas for cool new applications and products. I can try out new technology and software in prototype projects and once weâ€™ve worked out the kinks in the system, others can follow.

Gov 2.0 Hero Nick Chaney, Renewal Wonk, aka â€œMr. Engagementâ€ of the Rat Pack of Canadian Public Service Renewal, shares his thoughts on Gov 2.0.

What was your path to Gov 2.0?

Nick Charney: Let’s just say it’s been long, dual-tracked road. Officially, I’ve been a federal public servant (in Canada) now for just over three years, during which time I’ve held 5 different positions, each of which has taken me a bit closer to Gov 2.0.

When I found out computers could talk to each other, I fell in love. That was over 20 years ago, and I’ve spent most of my career using the internet to bring democracy to different industries. I was involved in partnering with Netscape to bring the Open Directory Project to Lycos and Hotbot back in the late 90’s. Yahoo built a directory by hand, and Chris Tolles had this crazy idea that he could crowdsource a much better version. This was probably one of the first Web 2.0 projects, before the term even existed.

There’s a huge wave of government transparency and citizen engagement building that will change the way we interact with our government like we’ve never seen before. We’re witnessing a revolution that will build a stronger America, and it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.